Dr. Bohlen's Blog: July 5-6, 2010 - "The Clinic - Part 1"

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by Julie Tork

Story Created: Jul 21, 2010 at 6:42 PM CDT

Story Updated: Jul 21, 2010 at 6:42 PM CDT

We are returning to the pictures and showing you where I have spent the majority of my time. These few days were uneventful. No great war activity and the temperature is staying in the 120's for the most part. I hope the weekend was nice. The best thing that happened was in Omaha where the 13 year old A's baseball team won the state championship and the 11 year old team made it to the semifinals but lost. The 11 year old team is the team in which my son, David plays on. They led into the tournament winning something like 22-23 games in a row. I am proud of the teams and to be there sponsor. Thanks to all the coaches for their hard work and dedication. Their teamwork payed off and I hope they feel great about their accomplishments.


The clinic is a fairly big side tent in our hospital. They technically did not have a clinic but until about 8 months ago when a doctor with the command hospital suggested it and they set this place up to service these common problems. We saw a picture of the door closed and now I will welcome you into the clinic.




Nothing to spectacular here but just wanted to give you an idea of the space and environment we work in. The next picture shows the first half of the clinic tent.




This half is where I work on a daily basis in seeing the soldiers. The back half which I will show you tomorrow is where the physical therapy part is located. Our big desk in which we sit behind sits to the left and the 2 exam areas are to the right. You can see a structural beam in the center of it. I think this is there because of the foam they put on the tents to insulate it. The increased weight made them necessary. We have our fancy air conditioner on top. The patients actually sign in and sit in the hall where we started. They wait there to be called back to the clinic or physical therapy.


This picture is what you get if you come see me in clinic in Camp Basrah, Iraq.



This is different then home b/c I am grumpy or crabby some of the time. You can see I am casually dressed in my gray t-shirt. I tried to tell them that I where a tie around the office at home so I should be able to do that here. They laughed in my face. I am drinking a Dr. Pepper to keep me awake. This is where we do all the work of the clinic. We have been slower as the months have gone along b/c they are sending more and more people home. The computers are where we do our notes. I personally have to type in each encounter with the patient into a special Army medical site. It is time consuming but in general effective b/c this system can be used anywhere in the world. So a patient seem here has his clinic note entered in and if he/she goes back home to say Ft. Riley they can look up the same note there.


We look to the right and we have exam room #1.




You can tell that the room is right in front of us as we sit behind the table. This is basically a tent room. The flaps fold away to keep it open but you can unhook them to close up the space for privacy. It pretty much is a typical room with a table for examinations. There is a cement block built ledge on the inside of this room that we keep supplies like needles and gauze sitting on.


The next picture is now looking back towards the entry at our workstation.




This guy's name is Chris. He just started working here. He comes from the 911 FST group from Wisconsin that has arrived. He will be here approximately 9 months and he already has cleaned up the place more and is still happy being here. I think he will do great b/c he has a good attitude.


The last picture is me standing in the back corner of our clinic.




I am trying to give you perspective here. You can see the 2nd exam room to the left. The difference is the flaps are let down for privacy. Not much to the place but well set up and functional for our purpose. I think it is pretty cool that they created this area.


That's it for my clinic. Tomorrow I will show you the back half of the tent where physical therapy lives and where a rocket hit here approximately 9 months ago.


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